Kingdom Hearts: Rise of Darkness
by The Dark Foreteller
Summary: A year after the defeat of Master Xehanort, Sora and his friends embark on a new journey to find the missing masters Aqua, Terra, and Ventus after the Land of Departure is consumed by darkness. On the way they find themselves fighting an ancient darkness that threatens the worlds.
1. Chapter 1: Darkness Gathers

Kingdom Hearts: Rise of Darkness

By Nyrax The Dark Foreteller

Summary: A year after the fall of Xehanort, Sora and the other keyblade masters have been leaving in peace. But when the Land of Departure suddenly is consumed by darkness and Aqua, Terra, and Ventus go missing, Sora and his friends must search the worlds for them and defeat an ancient darkness. Spoilers for all Kingdom Hearts games (including chi).

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or Final Fantasy. They are all owned by Disney and Square Enix. I do not own any characters from any of those franchises that will appear in this story. Please support the official release.

Author's Notes: This is my first fan fiction so feel free to leave any commentary that will help me advance. The story takes place after Kingdom Hearts 3 so it's going to be based on what I think will happen in the game, which is Terra is freed from Xehanort's control, thirteen seekers of darkness and Xehanort are defeated, and the _x_-Blade is not forged. Also in this story I will add cues for world music and battle themes to give it a video game/anime fell. Some characters from Disney and Kingdom Hearts will die in this story (but no gruesome deaths or scenes are shown or described).

* * *

Prologue

In a barren landscape, a sole figure stands atop a high cliff. A giant white door with a moon in the shape of a heart behind it lies off in the distance.

The figure stared directly at the door and spoke,

"Kingdom Hearts. Soon your light will shine on the worlds,"

A blade then appeared in his hand. It was a blade known well by all as the guardian of Kingdom Hearts, the _x_-blade.

The figure lifted the blade till its tip pointed straight at the door. A beam of light then shot from the blade's tip and disappeared into the door. A loud click emitted from the door and it slowly started to open. The figure then looked at the star filled sky.

"And plunge then into darkness forever"

* * *

Chapter 1: The Gathering of Darkness

In the Realm of Darkness, a castle sleeps within the dark depths, with only the noise of the many chains binding it to the ground to break the silence. In the center of the castle was a room with thirteen thrones laid out in a rectangular pattern. A chandelier hanged from the roof, light with a blue flame. A corridor of darkness then opened on the tallest throne. This was followed by ten more corridors opening on the other thrones alone with a single portal of light on the throne left of the tallest throne. When they vanished, twelve figures on sat in them.

Most of the figures were hidden in the darkness of the room. Only the figures on the four tallest thrones visible. The figure on the tallest of the thrones and the one right of it were both dressed in full suits of armor. The one seated in the throne left of the tallest throne was a young girl that appeared to be around sixteen years in age. She wore a coat similar to the ones worn by Organization XIII except it was white with gold highlights around the edges. A gold necklace in the shade of a heart with a crown on top dangled from her neck. The figure left of her wore the traditional black vision of her coat with the hood pulled up to hide his face. The figure right of the tallest throne armor then disappeared, revealing another female, this one appearing around a year older than the other. The female had the top of her hair spiked, which carried down all the way to her shoulder. She wore a furred black leather jacket and leather pants. The armor disappeared into an earring hanging from her left ear. The earring was in the shade of a chained heart with a black angel wing sprouting from the side.

At first the room remained silent, until the now unarmored female spoke.

"Sora is starting to be a real pain in our side. First he stopped Ansem and Xemnas from forging Kingdom Hearts. Now he has defeated Xehanort and stopped the _x_-blade from being forged."

Her voice was a little high pitch and it radiated with annoyance when she spoke. The figure in the black coat let out a small laugh at her statement.

"We don't have anything to worry about. Xehanort is nothing compared to use. We'll take that idiot and his friends down with no problem." His voice was full of confidence when he spoke. The armored figure then spoke.

"Spirit is right Xyam. Sora may be a keyblade master but he is not even close to being strong enough to stop us. Besides, Xehanort's defeat resulted in the restoration of Ventus's hearts. His heart was once used to forge the _x_-blade, so why should it be any different this time. All we need to do is reawaken him and the _x_-blade will be ours. But to make sure we are not interrupted, we will have to capture and eliminate the factors that stooped him last time." He then turned to Spirit. "I hope you can handle that Spirit."

Spirit let out another laugh,

"I may be awhile. You know how I like to enjoy every moment of my victim's pain."

"Do as you want as long as you complete your task. Oh, and bring them back here alive, I want to handle them myself." At these words a corridor of darkness reappeared around Spirit, teleporting him out of the room.

The figure's armor then transformed into a black and violet arm guard that took up the figure's whole arm, revealing a man that appeared around nineteen in age. The figure wore a black embroidered hood over a violet shirt. The shirts sleeves were embroidered as well and extended slightly beyond the figures wrist. A single gold sash was wrapped around the shirt. A long black robe stuck out from under the shirt barely covering the figure's feet, which had knee-high black boots with gold highlights around the top.

"Soon the worlds will return to the darkness, but this time" a grin appeared on his face, "they will remain there."

* * *

End of Chapter One

A/N: As I said in the beginning this is my first fan fiction so I am open to advise. Also feel free to leave your thought in the comments. I will take them into consideration when writing future chapters.


	2. Chapter 2: Spirit

The Land of Departure was silent and peaceful as usual. The noise of its three inhabitants training could be heard coming from a hill in the distance. A corridor of darkness suddenly opened in front of the castle. A figure in one of the Organization's coats emerged from it. As it closed he look towards the hill the noise was coming from.

"It sounds like they are training. I should thank them for saving me the trouble of finding and trapping them. I will try to remember that while I am beating them to the edge of death".

A grin appeared on Spirit's face as he started his way to the hill the inhabitants were at.

* * *

Aqua and Terra's keyblades clashed. Terra then jumped back and casted Firaga at Aqua. Right before the spell could hit she cast up reflect, which shoot multiple orbs of light when the spell hit.

Ventus silently watched his friends spar from the side. They had been going at each other for 30 minutes and neither showed signs of giving up. He could not wait to see which one of them eventually came out on top, even though Aqua had been winning most of their battles.

Aqua then pointed her keyblade at Terra and unleashed her ultimate shotlock, Lightbloom. Terra tried to block all of the rays of light but eventually they overwhelmed him, knocking him to the ground. Ven let out a laugh.

"That's Aqua 5, Terra 1."

Terra got up and cast Curaga on himself.

"That may be but last I checked it was me 4, you 2."

Ventus then summoned his keyblade. "I can change that right now if you want."

Aqua watched the two continue to throw comments at each other and let out a small laugh. Terra noticed this and turned to her.

"Hey, what are you laughing at?"

"I can't help it. It's funny how you two are constantly trying to out shine each other."

Terra and Ven were first confused by her comment but they then started to laugh as well. However, they all heard footsteps approaching from the entrance. They turned and saw a figure approaching them. The figure wore the exact same attire of Organization XIII and had the hood pulled over his head. The three masters instantly summoned their keyblades and took defensive stances. As the figure continued to approach them, Aqua noticed a dark aura emanating from him. The aura was stronger than that of Master Xehanort's, who she thought was the most powerful force of darkness that she would ever meet. However the figure in front of her proved that wrong, which caused her to worry. When the figure finally stopped, Terra stepped forward.

"Who are you and how did you get here?"

The figure then let out a sigh, "How unoriginal. I mean seriously, if you are going to try to intimidate someone try saying something that isn't used by everyone else in existence. That aside, my name is Spirit. As for how I got here, well I think you are familiar with corridors of darkness so I'll skip explain it. And to save you the trouble of saying why am I here, I am here to free a friend of mine from the shackles that imprison his heart."

This statement left the three confused. As far as they knew, there was no prisoner in the Land of Departure. And if this person wanted to free someone why would he come straight to them.

Aqua looked at Spirit, "There is no prisoner here. We are this world's only inhabitants."

Spirit let out a small laugh at her statement.

"Perhaps I should rephrase my statement in a manner that you can understand."

Spirit then raised his hand and it was engulfed in white flames. When the flames vanished the three stared in shock at the keyblade now in his hand. The blade handle was had two white and black halves of a gear were on both sides, connected by an eye of darkness. A white base was in the blade, with two chains wrapped around it. The teeth of the blade were made out of one large gear with another eye of darkness connecting the center to the base. The three instantly recognized it. Void Gear. The very keyblade that Vanitas, the dark half of Ventus's heart, had used. A grin could be seen under Spirit's hood.

"I am come for the one who originally wielded this keyblade."

With these words, Spirit charged the three keyblade master.

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End of Chapter 2

A/N: So Spirit's mission is to free Vanitas and capture Aqua, Terra, and Ventus. Also another disclaimer that is also a hint for people who might want to guess Spirit's true identity: I do not own Aqua, Terra, Ventus, **and** Spirit. They are all owned by Square Enix. Also another hint: there is a connection between Spirit's name and Void Gear.


	3. Chapter 3: Return to Darkness

(Cue Dread of the Night, Kingdom Hearts DDD)

As Spirit charged the three masters he disappeared in a black flash, only to appear next to Aqua ready to attack. She blocked his attack but he kept teleporting all around them, attacking each time he appeared. When his barrage of attacks ended, Ven and Terra charged Spirit with their keyblade, striking him while Aqua casted Triple Firaga.

When they finished their attacks, all three of them fell back to a safe distance. However Aqua noticed something strange about Spirit. He just stood in the same spot motionless and appeared to have taken now damage from their attacks. Just then Spirit appeared over Terra, dealing a fierce blow as the shadow clone he left disappeared. As Aqua cast Curaga on Terra, he got back up and looked at Spirit.

"Have to be careful of that. But wasn't that the same attack Vanitas always used to do?"

Aqua nodded in agreement, "Yeah I noticed that too. He seems to have the exact same fighting style and abilities as Vanitas. We shouldn't let our guard down because this guy would probably do what Vanitas would. Take advantage of it and kill us."

As if on cue Spirit held up Void Gear, which was engulfed in a ray of energy, "Suffer!"

He then charged Terra again, who immediately took a defensive position. However, instead of attack Spirit jumped into a portal that opened on the ground. The portal maneuvered itself around Terra. When it was behind him, Spirit emerged from it, striking Terra with his blade, slamming him on the ground. As Terra struggled to get up, Spirit turned his attention to Aqua and Ven, both of which were coming straight at him with their keyblades positioned to attack. Ventus went in to attack Spirit with his keyblade as Aqua shot multiple spells at him.

Spirit raised his keyblade up into a position to attack. Before any of their attacks hit, Spirit brought his keyblade down in one sweep and all their attacks were pushed back as if he had block then. Ventus then was knocked back by some unknown force. When Aqua went to check if he was alright, she noticed that wounds had appeared on Ven's body out of now where. Spirit grinned when he saw this.

"You're lucky I was ordered to bring the three of you back alive. In normal circumstances where I'm not holding back, Oblivion would have killed him. Now, if you surrender now I'll make sure my superior doesn't kill the two of you."

Aqua knew she couldn't give up. If she did she would be putting the worlds in great danger. But she also knew she couldn't let Spirit get a hold on Ven and more importantly Vanitas. She looked at Ven and realized what she had to do in order to keep him and the world's safe. She stood up and raised her keyblade. Spirit laughed when she did this.

"Do you really think that you can take me all by yourself? The three of you couldn't land a single hit on me and now two of you are unable to fight. Just give up."

However, while he was boasting, Aqua cast Magnega at Spirit, who was caught off guard by the spell. As he struggled to stay in place, Aqua looked down at Ven. A tear ran down her face.

"I'm sorry" was all she said before thrusting her keyblade into Ven chest, a light appearing where it made contact. As she extracted her blade, a small orb of darkness was bound to the end. Spirit realized what she was doing and started to charge at her, only to be blocked by Terra, who had finally been able to regain his strength. Spirit growled at him and from under his hood, his whole eyes turned to a blood red color.

"I'm growing tired of you" Spirit's voice now sounded demonic and twisted.

He grabbed Terra by the throat with one hand and threw him straight into the side of the hill, knocking him unconscious. His eyes returned to his original state and he turned back towards Aqua, just in time to see her place the dark object in her chest. She then summoned a portal of light around Ventus, and when it faded he had disappeared. Aqua fell to the ground and put both of her hands on her head. Pain flooded into her head as if responding to Ven's absence. Spirit walked up to her and let out a sigh.

"Normally I would enjoy you suffering at his hand, or heart in this case, but that whole letting-Ventus-get-away thing you just did is a real mood killer. But, as my objectives were to only reawaken his heart and capture the two of you, I don't have to worry about it. Now if you'll excuse me."

Spirit then summoned two corridors of darkness around Aqua and Terra, and a third one around himself. When it disappeared, he now stood in the throne room of the castle. He walked behind the thrones and summoned his keyblade. A large, glowing keyhole appeared above the middle throne. Spirit pointed the tip of Void Gear at the keyhole, with a beam of darkness shooting from the tip and going into it. As a large clicking sounded emanated from nowhere, a shadow heartless appeared and went into the keyhole. As the world began to dark and crumble apart, Spirit summoned a corridor of darkness around himself again. Before the portal completely engulfed him, he smiled at the destruction enfolding.

"Return to the darkness."

With this the portal closed. Moments after it closed, a portal of light opened and a sole figure emerged from it. The figure was female and was clocked She wore a mask in the shape of a cobra head over her face as if she was hiding it. The figure looked around at the crumbling world and left to look for any people left on it, just as three lights appeared in the sky.

* * *

End of Chapter 3

Just want to say that no one has yet to have gotten Spirit's true identity, but to Silverbird22 I say nice guess but no. To give you guys another hint: there is a reason Spirit's Void Gear is black and white, and why his eyes became completely red when Terra blocked him. Another hint that I feel is going to give it away: lingering.


End file.
